


At Sea by the Shore

by aurora_australis



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Family, MFMM Year of Quotes, Multi, Relationship Advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 02:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16317512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurora_australis/pseuds/aurora_australis
Summary: A chance encounter by the foreshore has Jack playing agony aunt and reminiscing about his youth.Inspired by the October Quote Challenge.





	At Sea by the Shore

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to the MFMM Year of Quotes -- October Challenge.
> 
> Inspired by the quote: "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." - Dr. Seuss
> 
> Many thanks to 221A_brina for the beta read!

Jack ambled down the foreshore, transferring the small shells he had collected on his walk from hand to hand, enjoying the last long rays of sunlight at the end of the day. He should be headed home and to dinner, but it had been a stressful day at work and he found the smells and sounds of the sea to be helpful in transitioning from his professional persona to his personal one. He was just about to turn around and head back when he noticed someone pacing ahead. 

It was a young woman, with modern dress and hairstyle, though perhaps not quite as fashionable as some others of his acquaintance. She seemed to be in distress, pacing and agitated, gesticulating with her hands. She didn’t seem intoxicated though, or mad, and for a moment Jack considered just continuing on his way. But something stopped him, and so, instead of turning towards home, he walked towards the young woman instead.

He justified it as the kind of thing any good policeman would do, though even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t true. _And besides,_ he added to himself with a wry chuckle and a self deprecating roll of his eyes, _here was a literal damsel in distress. Given the women of his acquaintance, when was he ever likely to meet one again?_

He approached her slowly, not wanting to startle her, especially as she seemed to not have noticed him yet.

“Excuse me, miss? Are you alright?”

She did look up at that.

“What? Oh. Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.”

Her tone was dismissive and determined and Jack nodded, ready to take her at her word and be on his way. But for some reason, interacting with another person snapped her out of whatever lather she had been working herself into, and as she turned away from him she seemed to deflate onto the nearby bench. Once again, Jack stopped. He hesitated for a moment before deciding on a different strategy.

“Well, if you’re fine... is this seat taken?”

Focusing her attention on him once more, she raised an eyebrow at his obvious transparency, but gestured to the seat in invitation all the same.

They sat in silence for a minute before he tried to engage her in conversation.

“It’s a lovely evening.”

“Mmmmm,” she agreed, but did not elaborate.

“Always nice to sit by the water,” he said.

“I wouldn’t know,” she said. 

Jack glanced over at her. She was staring straight ahead and after a moment he did the same, rolling the seashells around in his palm absentmindedly as he did. Hearing the sound, she took notice of the action and looked down with curiosity at his hands. Jack registered her look of interest and rifled through his stash. He found a small, green shell he thought especially pretty, and put it on the bench between them in silent offering. She picked it up and examined it, addressing the shell as she spoke. 

“I’m not from Melbourne,” she continued. “I’m just here for the weekend. Visiting… well meeting...” she stopped, suddenly very anxious.

“Oh? Where are you visiting from, Miss… ?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all, “I don’t give my surname or address to strange men.”

Jack raised his eyebrows, but did not comment on her policy. Instead he nodded in agreement. “Alright, then I won’t either. You can just call me Jack.”

She paused for a moment before answering. “Sarah,” she finally said definitively, reaching out to shake his hand. 

“Alright, Sarah, do you want to tell me what’s bothering you so much about whoever it is you’re meeting?”

“I’m not bothered. Exactly. I’m just… well I'm meeting my fiancé’s parents today. For the first time, I mean. And I’m a bit…”

“Nervous?”

“Petrified.”

Jack smiled. Not such a dire situation then, and one to which he could certainly relate.

“Well surely they can’t be that scary. What’s your young man say about them?”

“Oh, he thinks they hung the moon. But he can be like that, you know? I love him, but sometimes I think he was born wearing rose-coloured spectacles.”

“Ah yes, I know the type.”

“But he must be wrong. I mean, nobody’s that incredible.”

“You’re very young to be so jaded, Sarah.”

“I’m not jaded, I’m practical.”

“Alright then, you’re very young to be so practical. Youth is for optimism and whimsy.”

“Perhaps you grew up in a simpler time, Jack.”

He raised his eyebrows a bit at her bluntness, but as he didn’t detect any disrespect, decided she was just the sort to say whatever she was thinking. 

Jack knew that type too.

“I was nervous,” he offered, matching her honesty with his own, “when I was your age, meeting my wife’s parents for the first time.”

Sarah looked a little surprised at that. “You were?”

“Oh yes. I was this gangly constable -”

“You’re a policeman?” Sarah asked. Well, _interrupted_ , but Jack let that part go unremarked. Damsel’s prerogative.

“Yes,” Jack confirmed.

“My fiancé’s a policeman. A Senior Constable, which he’s very young to be,” she said, with no small amount of pride.

“Well done him,” Jack said. “And you?”

“I’m a writer,” she said, and Jack admired the way she didn’t equivocate on the statement. “But I’m sorry, you were saying?”

“Ah. Yes. I was this very young, very poor constable - not even Senior then - meeting her parents for the first time in their very big house. Rosie - my sweetheart - came from a lot more money than I did. It was a bit intimidating to be honest. On top of the fact that they were her _parents_. I knew her father by reputation of course - he was a Detective Inspector at the time - but I’d never met them and I wanted so much to make a good impression.”

“I know the feeling,” Sarah muttered.

“Are you worried you won’t?” Jack asked.

“A little, I suppose. They… they’re very important people, his parents. And in my experience, very important people tend to look down on people like me.”

“And what kind of person are you, Sarah?”

She looked away then, and Jack thought she might be embarrassed, but when she turned back to face him again, he realized she was angry.

“My life hasn’t been easy, Jack. My mum did the best she could but… times were tough and I did what I had to do to survive. I’m not proud of all of it, but I’m not ashamed either. And in the end, I made it. I made it, and I’m here, and I’ve got a good job, and I’ve met the most wonderful boy, and he wants to marry me, and I want to marry him. And I suppose I’m just not in the mood to be looked down on by people who don’t even know me.”

Jack waited to be sure she was finished before responding.

“Surely if they raised ‘the most wonderful boy’ they can’t be so bad.”

“Honestly? I keep picturing some mad combination of _Brideshead Revisited_ and a Noël Coward play,” she said, and Jack laughed at the description.

“Toffs, hmmm? You know, I do know a few of them. They’re not all bad.”

“Your in-laws you mean?”

“Among others.”

“Were they as kind as you?” she asked, and Jack was taken aback in a most pleasant way by the unexpected compliment.

“No, her father was… not a good man, in the end,” he said sadly, time having done nothing to lessen that particular pain. “But her mother... her mother was a wonderful woman. So generous of spirit. She saw how nervous I was, poured me a glass of sherry and expertly manoeuvred me over to their very impressive library without my even realizing what was happening. Somehow - I don’t know, I suppose Rosie told her - she knew I loved books. So she engaged me in a literary conversation over drinks to help break the ice. And it worked. I warmed up to her immediately. And in the end, dinner was fine.Though admittedly, I was also a bit tipsy from the sherry.”

Sarah snorted, then shot him a curious look. “And she encouraged you? To marry her daughter, I mean.”

“She didn’t really encourage or discourage us, but she was always a friend, an ally whenever I needed one. In fact,” Jack paused to chuckle at the memory, “when I decided to propose I went to her first, not Rosie’s father. To ask permission. Oh that was awful.”

“She said no?”

“I didn’t let her say anything! I was so nervous, I started this prepared speech on why we were right for each other, how I planned to take care of her, the pros and cons of marrying at our age, the pros and cons of marrying period. And _then_ I went off script. We were in the library again so perhaps I was just inspired. I think at some point I quoted Rilke - I know I quoted Shakespeare. And through the whole thing she just listened and nodded and waited for me to, essentially, run out of steam. And then, once I had, she just looked at me and said, ‘Jack, you’re making the question very complicated, when it should be very simple. Do you love each other?’ I said yes. And then she said, ‘well then, my answer is simple, too - yes.’”

“She sounds wonderful.”

“She was, she was. She died a long time ago, and I still miss her very much. I was… not in the country at the time, which made it even harder.”

“And your wife and you - you’re still happy?”

“Uh, no, actually, we’re no longer together.” Sarah’s face fell at that, but Jack ducked his head ever so slightly to maintain eye contact. “But that had more to do with circumstances neither of us could have predicted than anything else. And you can’t let fear of an unknown future keep you from being happy today.”

“So you don’t regret it?” Sarah asked.

“I wouldn’t trade the good years we did have for anything.”

“Are you… still friends?” Sarah asked, hesitantly. She seemed to feel like she was overstepping, but it was important enough of a question that she was willing to do so anyway. 

“We are. She no longer lives in Melbourne, but we write and talk whenever we can. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything either.”

Sarah nodded, and looked out at the sea once more. When she spoke again, she didn’t face him, just stared at the water and fiddled with the seashell in her hands. 

“His parents are important people.”

“So you’ve said.” Jack looked at her and felt the detective in him go to work. “And you’re not?”

“To some, perhaps.”

“To him?”

She didn’t answer that. Just kept her eyes on the water.

“You don’t think you’re worthy of his affections,” Jack said.

“I didn’t say that,” Sarah said, finally facing him.

“But society will?” Jack asked.

“In my experience, ‘society’ is an ass and can bugger off for all I care,” she said. “I’m not concerned…” She sighed and looked down at her hands. “He thinks they hung the moon, Jack. What if they are like that... just, _nice_ people? And what if they don’t like me?” 

“What’s not to like?”

“I’m… I’m not a _nice_ girl, Jack.”

Jack turned on the bench then, facing her fully and meeting her eyes.

“Sarah, pretty much all of my favorite people were not ‘nice’ girls. Nice…” he considered how to phrase what he wanted to say. “Nice is boring. Be kind. Be interesting. Be brave. Be true. Don’t worry about being nice. And if your future in-laws can’t see that… well then, they can bugger off with the rest of society,” he said, and she laughed. “And, if you don’t mind a bit more advice from an old man, don’t let them, or anyone else, complicate the question _or_ the answer. Do you love each other?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Very much.”

“Then there you go.”

Sarah smiled at that, the first true, happy smile since he’d introduced himself, and Jack was suddenly ever so pleased he hadn’t kept walking.

She looked down at her wristwatch then and made a small grimace.

“I should go though. I’m not sure exactly where I’m headed and I don’t want to be late. But thank you.”

“Of course. It was nice talking to you, Sarah.” 

She went to hand him back the shell, but he held up his hand to stop her. “Keep it,” he said. “For luck.”

Sarah wobbled her head for a moment and rolled her eyes, seemingly coming to another decision.

“Sadie,” she said. “My name, I mean. Well, I mean, Sarah _is_ my name. My real name. But everyone calls me Sadie. Sadie Gurney.”

Jack’s eyes widened slightly, and his mouth opened in surprise before he shook his head and smiled, marveling again at the mercurial nature of fate.

“You won’t be late,” he assured her. “But if you’re not sure where you’re going, you’re welcome to walk with me. I have a feeling we’re headed the same way.”

Sadie furrowed her brow in confusion and Jack reached out his hand to introduce himself again. 

“Jack. Robinson. Nice to meet you Sadie Gurney.”

“Oh isn’t that funny, that’s…” And then it was Sadie’s turn to widen her eyes in surprise. “Robinson? Jack _Robinson_? Deputy Commissioner Jack Robinson?”

“The one and the same.”

“You’re Will’s dad!”

“I am. And you’re the young woman my son has been talking about nonstop for the last six months.”

“Oh… and I said… oh no,” she whispered, sinking back down onto the bench. Suddenly she looked up at him. “Did you know the whole time?”

“Not until you gave me your real name, I’m afraid. Otherwise I probably would have left out the coarse language and anecdote about the sherry.”

“So…” she said, closing her eyes for a moment as comprehension dawned on her. “You didn’t know I was coming. To dinner I mean.”

“No, I’m afraid not. Will mentioned he had a surprise for us. He neglected to mention how big.”

“You didn’t know we were engaged either,” she said, not a question, just a resigned statement. 

“Again, no. Apparently Will’s going with shock and awe as his strategy here.”

Sadie sighed and closed her eyes. “His mother’s going to hate me,” she said quietly. 

“Rubbish. You turn up with half the gumption you just showed me and Phryne will absolutely adore you. As will Jane, and the rest of the family. We’re a motley crew, but we’re rather devoted to each other’s happiness. And there is _always_ room for one more strong, smart woman in the mix.”

She smiled and relaxed. “Maybe Will’s right. Maybe you are that incredible.”

“Oh I wouldn’t go that far. Phryne does have a flair for the dramatic; I’m sure she’ll have something to say about this bombshell Will’s about to drop.”

“Wonderful,” Sadie muttered, and Jack got the distinct impression his son was going to get an earful from all the strong, smart women in his life tonight. _Serves him right_ , he thought.

“I wouldn't worry though,” Jack said, standing and offering his arm to her in a most old-fashioned gesture. “You already have one friend. And we have a very impressive library.”

“That sounds nice,” she said, standing and accepting his arm. “Though, if you’re offering, I’ll definitely take some of that sherry as well.”

Jack laughed, and the two of them began walking, arm in arm, towards home.

**Author's Note:**

> There is a whole backstory in my head as to how Phryne and Jack ended up with Will, which will never be written, but to sum up very briefly because I’ve been asked: Will was orphaned when he was very young, leaving Jack as his only living relative. He wound up adopted (literally and figuratively) by the Wardlow Crew due to a combination of Jack’s strong sense of family and responsibility, Jane’s lingering guilt over her good fortune and her desire to pay it forward, and, last but not least, Phryne’s heart being too big for this world.
> 
> Also, because it tickles me, I will share that the alternate title of this fic, is “He Tells, Gives Shells by the Seashore.” ;-)


End file.
